Leanansidhe (lan-awn-shee)

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You ask me where I go so late

and why my mission cannot wait

I say, I seek the fairy mate

who gives the power to create

------In the darkness of the sea

Her power, known through all the land

Gives poets power to command

If one but looks to take her hand

-----The lovely Leanansidhe

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For this gift, she makes a claim

That's hardly worth the price of fame

But for her price, all fear her name

In light and darkness just the same

-----In the darkness of the sea

The Lady asks your blood to fill

her cauldron red and deep, but still

how small a price for all the skill

-----Of lovely Leanansidhe!

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The Leanansidhe, she waits alone

to find one worthy to be her own

To hear her wisdom, yet unknown

and kneel beside her coral throne

-----In the darkness of the sea

And I, I seek her when I can:

My search, so long ago began

Now leads me to the Isle of Man

-----and lovely Leanansidhe

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I find her hidden deep, away

from places where a man may stray

away from the harsh light of day

to be amoung the shadows gray

-----In the darkness of the sea

Her hair hangs down as black as night

Her eyes shine with an inner light

Too beautiful for human sight,

-----the lovely Leanansidhe

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When I kneel, she bids me rise

And looks on me with those dark eyes

She askes, "What gift shall I devise?

What do you ask this fairy, wise

-----wraped in the darkness of the sea?"

I say, "I seek the skill you bring

to those who tightly to you cling

and to the poets, so fair a thing

-----as lovely Leanansidhe."

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She laughs, and brightly reaches down

into the folds of her dark gown

She draws a knife, and with a frown

It seems to me that I will drown

-----in the darkness of the sea

The fairy lifts her cauldron red

and gently turns away my head

I suddenly feel lifeless, dead

-----as lovely Leanansidhe

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Her cauldron fills with my pale blood

Her lips, red as a new rose bud

drink her fill of the precious flood

that splatters down into the mud

-----in the darkness of the sea

I pull away, with startled cry

She wipes her mouth, and with a sigh

says, "You have seen, so you must die

-----for lovely Leanansidhe."

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"You are not worthy of my gift

but do not fear--for death is swift

and silent in this ocean rift

where poet spirits ever drift

-----in the darkness of the sea."

"No! I must live!" I gasp, But how?

My blood is in her cauldron now

and I have made a binding vow

-----to lovely Leanansidhe.

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She hears, and says "There is a way

To take my gift, and then repay

with a gift of equal weight

and see the light of another day

-----outside the darkness of the sea

Write a poem that will tell

the poets now who seek my spell

of my price, and warn them well

-----against lovely Leanansidhe."

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"Yes!" I gasp, "I'll pay your price."

She laughs, "I won't be generous twice

Your poet's skill had best suffice

to tell my tale!" Her voice is ice

-----in the darkness of the sea

I leave as quickly as I can

My search, so long ago began

Has found its end at the Isle of Man

-----before the lovely Leanansidhe

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And so I write this tale tonight

In the fading candlelight

To tell of the lady, dark as night

and too beautiful for human sight

-----in the darkness of the sea

If you seek a poet's skill

She hides there in the darkness still

Beware! Her gift is quick to kill!

-----The lovely Leanansidhe.